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Almost 2 weeks ago I splurged and bought a new machine. The store doesn’t stock them (!!!) so I’ve been waiting and waiting for my new Activa 230 PE to come in. In the meantime, I started planning and then cutting out pieces for some projects in my queue. Behold!
(Postscript: the Bernina & I did not fit well. I returned it and a week or so later bought a used Pfaff Expression 2046 which I adore, adore, adore.)
Tags: Bernina, Pfaff, sewing machineProject Notes: The Montessori By Hand pattern, now rebranded as Sew Liberated, is a totally cool design! I used my beloved Modern Flora home dec fabric and my equally beloved Denyse Schmidt fabric for the accents. The project has a lot of steps and I always find it tiresome to make long strips of bias tape. Nevertheless this came together fairly easily. I spent a lot of time cutting my pieces out with care so that the fabric design was never interrupted.
Mistakes/Complications: I didn’t use enough stuffing.
Notes for Next Time: err on the side of too much stuffing! if you have trouble closing it you can always remove stuffing! If there’s not enough than - take it from me - the pillow won’t be strong enough to support your book well. My book sinks into the pillow as though the pillow were part beanbag.
Tags: Amy Butler, Little Stitches For Little Ones, reading pillow, sew liberatedDuring my maternity time, I embraced the elastic waist skirt. It seemed like a good excuse to tackle this easy skirt project. Normally I don’t like elastic waist anything, but practicality won out.
Project Notes:I made 2 skirts, both using Sew What! Skirts for source material.
Mistakes/Complications: For skirt one, I took a pattern I’d made based on an Ann Taylor skirt I already own. It’s not an elastic waist, so I winged it by adding an extra inch or two to the waist and a little bit - maybe 2″ total to the width. This was a mistake because the skirt was too tight. It’s a struggle to get on and off and uncomfortable. So, for skirt two, I used the book’s direction for an elastic waist. Now I had the opposite problem - it was just too big for my taste, too gathered looking. Nevertheless I wore it all pregnancy long!
Notes for Next Time: Were I to make another elastic waist skirt, I’d take the second pattern I’d made and lop off about 4″ total from the width.
Tags: Sew What! Skirts, skirtI have not been keeping up documenting my sewing projects. Argh! The major problem is that I’d like to put them up chronologically and now I’ve got a backlog because some are easier to write than others. I spent a lot of the last few days reading the supereggplant and allbuttonedup blog posts about sewing & it made me confront the fact that if I don’t write promptly, I’ll just forget the little details of a project that all add up to learning and defining my sewing skills. So, I’m just going to have to try harder! And also accept that my posts will be in a hodgepodge sort of order.